My Grandfather's Pictures

My mother's father, Oliver Richard Tannahill, died when my mother was barely six.  As a a young child, I knew very little about him.  As I grew older, I learned that he was a marvelous hunter and outdoorsman.  My mother told stories of sitting at the dinner table and watching him slurp spaghetti into his mouth - mostly to make my mother giggle.  She must have been pouting because she had gotten in trouble with her mother.  I learned that he was extremely hard worker who didn't waste a lot of time with sleep.  Mom used to tell stories of him on his tractor and having all ages of kids crawling over him and the tractor.  What I have gotten from all of these stories is that he was a much beloved husband and father...but also uncle, brother and friend.

When my grandmother decided to give her two daughters the choice between the animal heads - I think it was a mountain goat and mountain sheep (my uncle tells me that they were both mountain goats and were hunted up on the Selway River) and the two large photos of Richard - my mother chose the two photos.

The above two photos hang in oval frames on our wall and have since I was a little girl.  The one on the left was taken after Richard had caught a record Mackinaw trout up at Fish Lake on the Buffalo Hump. (Near present day Elk City, ID)  As it was taken in 1940, Richard would have been about 29 years of old.  I found the newspaper article from the Lewiston Morning Tribune that recorded the record fish.  The photo below must have been taken in the early to mid 1930's.  Richard's hunting prowess was well known and discussed.  Evidently he was a marvelous athlete who had remarkable stamina.  My mother said that he used to run from Waha to Lewiston, so he could go to school...that is well over 25 miles one way.  It was said that he could run a deer down.  He would keep tracking it until it got tired and laid down.  Deer have marvelous speed but they can't keep it up. He looks like such a young man compared to the other photos and there is a definite macho image to me...sitting there with his trusty dog, the lynx he just hunted and his gun.

The above photo was taken by Richard's brother, George.  It was probably taken about 1945.  There aren't a lot of photos that were with Richard and his daughters Joan and my mother Betty.  After he was killed in an hunting accident  (Daddy's Gone)  Mom's Uncle George had this photo duplicated and gave my mother and sister a copy of this picture in a frame.  I can remember this picture sitting in a place of honor on my mother's dresser throughout my childhood.  I still have it, in its original frame sitting on the piano with many other treasured family pictures.

I've since seen a lot more pictures of my grandfather gathered from many family members as well as old photo albums.  However, these three photos or the ones that have left an indelible impression on my mind.

Old Postcards - New York

My great grandfather was born and raised in Esperance, NY.  Back in 1892, when he was born there weren't the common lines of communication that we have today.  I'm fairly sure that they didn't have a telephone and that the quickest, surest way of communication was a postcard.  There was a photo album of some of these postcards that were traded between Granddad Gage and his family.  My grandmother scanned these years ago, and there are some pretty neat scenes of turn of the century Esperance, NY.

Wooden bridge near Esperance

Old Bridge - Esperance, NY

 

Presbyterian Church - Esperance, NY

Here are some other post cards from the Schoharie and Schenectady area as well!

Main Street - Schoharie, NY

Schenectady NY Court House

Post cards of the Erie Canal - near Schenectady, NY

Schenectady,NY residential area

Schoharie High School

Everette Henry Gallup

When I was growing up, I would often hear my grandmother talk about her father's aunts and uncles that she remembered from Nebraska.  One of the ones that she talked about often was one she referred to as Uncle Henry.

Everett Henry Gallup was 7th child in a family of 12 children.  He was born in Duanesburg, Schenectady Co., NY on 16 Jun 1873 to Silas Gallup and Phebe Ann Montanye.  He moved with his family on Thanksgiving Day in  1887 to Burt Co., NE.  Henry had two older brothers, Albert and Allen.  Albert was a school teacher and probably came out before his parents as did his other brother, Allen.  There were opportunities for young men that weren't available in New York.  However, Allen  went back to New York and married in 1898 and lived there his lifetime.  From what I understand, Silas Gallup had some health problems and had been encouraged by his brother and sons to come out to Nebraska because it was a dryer climate.  I don't know if this meant that he had tuberculosis or simply weak lungs - but I suspect that his health was not good.  So after moving out west in 1887, and starting a farm, his sons Henry and George probably did the bulk of the work.  By the time Silas Gallup died in 1898 of throat cancer, his sons aged 25 and 23 were already taking care of the farm.

George and Henry are listed in the 1900 census as partners and as farmers, but in 1907, George married Clara Thompson and moved to his own place.  Henry was left at the home place taking of his mother and he never married.  In 1908, his oldest sister (my great great grandmother) died and her four children came out west.  The oldest, my great grandfather, went his own way after bringing his siblings out on the train.  The younger three moved in and made the Gallup home place their home.  I don't think that circumstance lasted too long.  I have heard that the son, Peter, felt as though he was treated as a hired hand and if he was going to be treated that way, then he might as well be paid for it.  The youngest, Alice also was living with another family as a servant.  So in the 1910 census, only Everett Henry, his mother Phoebe and his niece Phoebe are in the household.  I have heard enough from relatives, that Phebe Montanye Gallup was not the easiest person to live with and many in the family felt that her granddaughter, Phebe Gage, was a remarkable person for staying to take care of her grandmother.  I have to wonder if the same might been said about Henry or (Everett Henry) which was his full name.  Henry Gallup never married and was the only one of his siblings to do so.   Phebe Montanye Gallup died on 21 Jun 1927 in Oakland, Burt Co., NE and left at the Gallup home place was Henry and his niece, Phoebe...and old bachelor and his old maid niece.

Phebe Montanye Gallup

They lived together and continued on as before with Henry working the farm and Phebe taking care of the home and all of the other things that women did during that time.  All that changed on 16 May, 1932, when Henry died in a tractor accident at the age of 58.  He wasn't the youngest of his sibling to die - two sisters had predeceased him, but he was the first of the Gallup brothers to die.  The farm was sold as well as all of the contents and while Phebe was supposed to not inherit anything by her grandmother's will, Henry's siblings made sure that she did - because along with her uncle - they had taken care of Phebe Gallup and the family farm for decades.  Unlike her uncle, Phebe did not remain unmarried and married a widower, August Peterson when she was 43 years of age.  In fact, I dimly remember meeting her before she died in 1976 at the age of 81.

I think this a picture of the Gallup home place in Nebraska

35 Years Ago...

Mom Friddle with my grandmother Capitola and son Claude!

You might say that my great grandmother, Sophie Dollar Friddle, is one of my favorite subjects.  Probably because I have always heard so many stories about her that made a definitely impression and also because I remember her.  I wish I could say that I remembered her well - but I remember her the way and eleven year old would...with fleeting images and memories.  I do remember well the day she died and following days afterwards.

I remember Mom telling all of us kids about Mom Friddle's death and as the youngest, I was sad - but I really didn't know what it meant or what was coming.  For my mother, I could see that this was a truly monumental event and I know from what she has told me over the years that Mom Friddle was one of the most important people in her life.  Mom grew up just a hundred or so feet from her house.  So, she was very much a part of Mom's daily life.  Even as an adult, they spent a lot of time talking and visiting on the phone.  Mom Friddle loved to call and find out what type of trouble that my brothers had gotten into that day.

On that day, 35 years ago, that we had a graveside service for Mom Friddle - everything was different to me.  It was the first time that I had saw a body and it didn't look like Mom Friddle to me.  She was still - I had never seen Mom Friddle not shaking her head constantly with her tic or with white hair.  It had been six months since I had seen her and she had been in a nursing home - and she didn't look like the grandmother I was used to.  At the graveside, everyone stood around solemnly and somehow I ended up near my uncle Claude.  When service started I took his hand...or maybe he took mine.  This was very unfamiliar to me and I was a bit nervous.  As the service progressed, Claude held my hand tighter and I looked up at him.  I saw tears creeping down his face and I think that I realized that Mom Friddle was much more than the old Grandma that I knew who told great stories - she was a beloved mother who left behind three children who despite the fact they were all over 50 were going to miss their mother dearly.

I know so much more about my great grandmother now than I did back then.  I've learned things from all of my family that knew her and have learned a few things on my own.  So, as I go down to the cemetery today and lay flowers at her stone - I will think of that day so long ago...but now I wish I had been a bit older and had talked to her more about her life.  She probably would have told me a few tall tales, but it would have been fun to hear them from her!

Here are a few blogs that I have written about Mom Friddle that you may enjoy!

Three Great Dames - Happy Thanksgiving

119 Years Ago…today!

Place to Place

Coffee & Hot Toddies

A Lifetime of Changes

Taken about 1920 - Left to right - Capitola, David Carl Friddle, Jack and Sophie Dollar Friddle